As a result of promotion of medical supports or services for home treatment (hereinafter referred to as medical home services), the number of patients who may receive such home medical services is rapidly increasing. In most cases where these patients are placed under home medical services, a large part of the home medical service is left in the hands of helpers including a family member and a nursing staff who visit the patients at home periodically, so that the administration of other medical supplies (hereinafter referred to as medicines) is also left in the hands of these helpers. In such cases, therefore, medicines are not prepared daily by a pharmacist and administered by a nursing staff as in a hospital.
Because medicines can be degraded in quality by such environmental conditions as heat and moisture, patients who are recuperating at home often store medicines in the refrigerators. However, proper preservation temperature of medicines normally range from 2 to 8.degree. C., so that the temperatures of the refrigerators are not necessarily appropriate for the medicines.
To meet demands of such home recuperating patients, special types of drug preservers have been distributed on the market, some of which are provided with a detection system for detecting improper preservation conditions and gives a necessary warning.
It should be noted that a patient is often supplied with several kinds of medicines which must be taken regularly in accordance with the prescription, which is difficult for many of the home recuperating patients, under existing home medical service systems because of lack of helpers.
In view of the fact that the number of aged lonely bedridden patients who need home medical services is increasing, this entails a serious problem, in particular when they forget taking the medicines or forget if taken the medicines have been as prescribed. Should the administration of home medical services be neglected, the patients may become worse and face retardation of convalescence.
Thus, it is becoming an increasingly important problem to administrate medicines for the home patient.